City expansion on the cards in shake-up

UNDER PLANS TO ABOLISH LOCAL COUNCILS, BROXTOWE, GEDLING AND RUSHCLIFFE COULD FIND THEMSELVES PART OF A LARGER NOTTINGHAM

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

A MAJOR shakeup to Nottinghamshire's boundaries looks increasingly likely to entail some form of city expansion in the coming years.

Councils in their current form are set to be abolished across the country as part of government plans and Nottinghamshire leaders are working out how the bigger councils that remain should cover the county and city.

An option that would have involved Nottingham City Council being left as it is has now effectively been ruled out, meaning some form of city expansion into areas like Broxtowe and Gedling looks more likely.

It does not mean that other options cannot be presented to the government though when the November deadline comes around.

A Nottinghamshire-wide survey has just been launched, taking forward to the two core options which are explained below:

Why are the boundaries changing?

The new Labour government decided soon after taking office that it wanted to embark on the biggest shakeup to local government in 50 years. Nottinghamshire and the city of Nottingham are both good examples of the two primary systems of local government in use - one of which the government is abolishing.

The unitary model involves one council covering all services in its area, ranging from fixing the roads and providing social care services to collecting bins and maintaining parks. This is the system in use in the city, meaning Nottingham City Council is responsible for all local authority services.